Burraco Rules

Burraco Rules

Game Overview

Burraco is a popular Italian card game that originated in South America in the 1940s. It is a part of the Canasta group of games and is played by four players in partnerships. The game requires a 2x52+4J deck of cards, with 108 cards in total, including four Jokers, also known as "jolly" in Italian. The game is a relative of Canasta and is similar to Samba, with the aim being to meld combinations of seven or more cards that can be either sets of equal rank or sequences in a suit. You can purchase a Burraco card game on Amazon here.

Objective

The objective of Burraco is to form melds, which may be sets of equal cards or sequences of consecutive cards in a suit, and to score points by completing these melds. The game is played in partnerships, and the goal is to score the highest number of points before the game ends.

Setup

The first dealer is chosen by drawing cards from the shuffled pack. The player who draws the lowest card deals first. For this purpose, the cards rank from high to low: joker, 2, A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. Among equal cards, the suits rank in bridge order: spades (high), hearts, diamonds, clubs (low). If more than one player draws a joker, those players draw again to break the tie. The draw can also be used to determine the partnerships and seats if not decided in advance: the two highest play against the two lowest, and the player who drew the highest card sits to the dealer’s left and therefore plays first.

The dealer shuffles the cards thoroughly and offers them face down to his right-hand opponent to cut. This player lifts approximately the top third of the pack – for the deal to work smoothly, he needs to take at least 22 cards and leave at least 45 behind. The dealer takes the remainder of the pack – the part that was originally at the bottom – and from the top of it deals the cards one at a time face down clockwise to the players until each has 11 cards. Meanwhile, the player who cut deals cards from the bottom of the section of the pack that he lifted, to form two face-down piles called pozzetti. The cards are dealt one at a time alternately to the piles until each has 11 cards. The cutter then places these piles one on top of the other in a cross formation towards one corner of the table, and puts the remaining cards of this part of the pack face down in the middle of the table. Having dealt the four hands, the dealer places the next (45th) card face-up in the middle of the table and stacks the remaining cards next to it on top of the stack placed there by the cutter, thereby completing the cut. So now each player has a hand of 11 cards, there are two face-down 11-card stacks in a corner of the table, and in the middle is a face-down draw pile of 41 cards, with a single face-up card beside it.

How to Play

The player to dealer's left begins. Players take turns to play, in clockwise order around the table, until someone goes out or the play ends because the stock is exhausted.

A turn consists of:

1. Drawing the top card of the face-down draw pile, or taking the whole of the face-up discard pile, and adding it to one’s hand;
2. Optionally laying down any number of valid sets or sequences, or adding cards to sets or sequences already melded by one’s own team, or both;
3. Discarding one card from hand face up on top of the discard pile.

The first player who gets rid of the last card from his or her hand picks up takes the first pozzetto of 11 cards to use as a new hand. The second pozzetto is taken by the first player of the other team who runs out of cards. There are two ways to take a pozzetto:

1. Taking a pozzetto directly: A player whose team has not yet taken a pozzetto draws, melds all the cards in his or her hand, picks up a pozzetto, and continues playing. Often it will be possible to meld some cards from the pozzetto immediately, either as new sets or sequences or by adding to the team’s existing melds. When the player does not wish to meld any more cards, a card is discarded to end the turn as usual.
2. Taking a pozzetto on the discard: A player whose team has not yet taken a pozzetto draws, melds all but one of his or her cards and discards the final card. Having no cards in hand, the player takes a pozzetto and keeps it face down, while the opponent to the left and the player’s partner take their turns. After the partner has discarded, the player picks up the pozzetto to use as his or her hand for the next turn. This delay in looking at the pozzetto is to avoid any temptation for the player to influence partner’s play on the basis of the cards in the pozzetto.

The play can end in one of three ways:

1. A player goes out: this is known as chiusura (closing). In order to close, the following conditions must be satisfied:
   • the team has taken its pozzetto;
   • the team has melded at least one burraco - a set or sequence of 7 or more cards;
   • a member of the team melds all but one card from hand and discards this final card, which cannot be a wild card.

Scoring and End of Game

The game continues until one team goes out, and the team that goes out scores points for the cards they have left in their hand and the cards in their melds. Points are calculated as follows:

• Standard cards (2-9): Face value
• Tens: 10 points
• Face cards (Jack, Queen, King): 10 points
• Aces: 11 points, or 20 points if used as a singleton (a single card in a meld)
• Jokers: 50 points each

The team that goes out scores points for their hand and melds, and the game ends when one team reaches a predetermined score, usually 1,000 points.

Common Variants

There are several common variants of Burraco, including:

1. Two-team Burraco: Instead of partnerships, the game is played with two teams of two players each, with each player playing for themselves.
2. Burraco with seven cards: Instead of 11 cards, each player is dealt seven cards, and the gameplay is similar to standard Burraco.
3. Burraco with jokers in the stock: Instead of the face-up card being placed on top of the stock, it is placed face-down in the stock, and Jokers are added to the stock when they are drawn from the deck.

Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

1. Failing to take a pozzetto when it is your team's turn to take one.
2. Not paying attention to the number of cards in your hand and going out with fewer than 10 cards.
3. Not understanding the difference between taking a pozzetto directly and taking a pozzetto on the discard.
4. Not being aware of the points scored for different cards and not keeping track of your team's score.
5. Not communicating effectively with your partner and not taking advantage of the information in the pozzetto.